Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-05-19

Il
in the g gale. Captain Dodson
took his place in Che long-boat and com.
manded nle.to shove off fromsthe quay
and make SAIL He had transacted his
business with the agent and was nat
urally anxious to get back in charge of
his ship before worse weather might
place her in danger.
! It was bitterly cold; the salt spray
kept dashing and : beating upon US
heavily. and it was terribly hard work
beating up and handling the heavy
long-boat against both wind and sea-
As the darkness crepton, it grew yet
| colder, while the wind gradually fell,
and by the time we had made half the
distance to the brave old Mary Jane, the
Esnow came on, and we could no longer
find our way, for the different vessels
became hidden in the whirling, eddying.
thickly-packed, pure white flakes that
fell so densely,,s so gently. and with such
inexhaustible fdetermination AS it
was now impossible to find our vessel,
all that we could hope to do was to see
some other craft, on board Of which we
might obtain shelter forthe night. or
until the snow storm had sufficiently
abated to permit our proceeding in
in quest Of the Mary Jane. Z
Blindedby the driyin ssspray and the
| thickly falling snow-fakes. for nearly
an hour we drove wildly on at the mer-
cy of the winds and water. when sud
denly the boy, whom Ihaa placed on
| the lee side to keep lookout. cried:
There's vessel to loo ard. sir.
Here, we're close aboard her." o..
S"Slack away the halyards,' - roared
the captain. as he pushed the tiller
over and luffed up head to wind.
did so. and, as: the sail came down,
saw that we:were close aboard small
vessel, of which. in another two min
utes. had we held our course, we
should have been right athwart hawse,
| when in all probability the boat would
have been capsized ether upon her
cable or upon her bows. and we should
have found a damp grave at the bot
tom of the Azof Sea.
/ Before getting alongside the. Xebec
Captain Dobson hailed her several
times in tones sufficiently stentorian to
have awakened Rip Van Wrinkle, and
at length managed to elicit a reply
from the drowsyl fellow. on anchor
watch; but his words were of some
strange. unknown tongue, so that we
were unable to tell whether he gave
us permission to come alongside or
babe us keep off
| In spite of our lost and uncomfort-
able position I felt a strange and I'M
accountable aversion to take shelter
on board the foreigner. Besides the
unknown language and the lookout
mans reply had sounded harsh and
disagreeable. .gsas - o..
B y the dim light of lantern, held
close to our face, we were enabled to
scan the very ill-favofed features of
the lookout man and his captain; the
latter having, suppose, been called
on deck to receive us. They were
swarthy, black-muzzled, villianous-
looking fellows, especially the captain,
who scrowled at us beneath his beetle
| brows. and made not the slightest at
tempt to treat US with the hospitality
which has long been honored as an in
dispensable custom at Taganrog; all
vessels treating kindly the crews of
such boats as from the extent of the
| anchorage and distance to the shore,
frequently become belated either by
| night or bad weather.
| BY usinglwhat few words 1 CHANGED
to know of that strange jargon, the
..lingua Franca'' of the Mediterranean,
1 ascertained that our inhospitable in
| terlocutors were Greeks. So much for
the modern representatives of glorious
and classic ground! Z
| Wewere marched aft, then the Greek
captain pointed out to US the round
house over his vessels wheel Gan edifice
in which Greek and Italian craft do
largely ,rejoice). From the gesticula-
tion.to which we were treated, we
derived the information that we could
sleep there. We entered. and were left
in total darkness. for the ill-natured
and unsailor-like lubbers would not
even leave their miserable lanterns
with us; but by and by 1 found out
Stumbling over small sails. coils of
rope, swabs. brooms, buckets and such
like varied ships paraphernalia, we
seated ourselves in the dark, and
munched the beef and biscuit, and
drank the cold water that we had
brought up out of the boat. Within
half an. hour the loud, healthy,
trumpet-like snoring of my captain,
and theEsoft, regular respiration of the
boy, told me that my companions were
fast and sound asleep. = s'zs@
AS for myself, could not close my
eyes. Of naturally restless DISPOSE
ton, my wakefulness was this night
increased by the indefinable suspicion
or presentiment with which I had be-
come possessed. Moreover. had no.
ticed the keen glances darted by the
Greek captain at the large "ditty-bag'
| Ga canvas bag in which a sailor. keeps
his own tools, marlin-spike. serving
mallet, sail-making implements, ETC.
carried by our rough, unpretending,
old-fashioned captain in place of a
more .pretentious carpet-ba or valise.
/ knew that on. this occasion, among
other things, the ''ditty-bag" contained
laipretty large sum of money, the skip
per having obtained sufficient from the
agent to find all hands in funds for a
couple of days liberty ashore could
not help wondering whether the Greek
Idiviued its contents. He must have
noticed that 1t seemed heavy, and that
our 'sold man" took particular care of